SANATOGEN: A SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF ITS ALLEGED ACTION ON THE RECUPERATING POWERS OF THE BLOOD
Sanatogen, the new elixir of life compounded of casein and glycerophosphates, has been noticed in The Journal from time to time. It will be remembered that, while it has been claimed that “Sanatogen contains over 700 per cent. more tissue-building, life sustaining nourishment than wheat flour,” the facts are that one dollar’s worth of wheat flour contains as much energy as one hundred and ninety-seven dollars’ worth of Sanatogen! To this the manufacturers rejoin, in effect, that the casein and glycerophosphates in Sanatogen, being in chemical combination, possess a mystical and esoteric virtue not measurable in terms of the food-value of the several ingredients. The fact is, of course, that even assuming, for the sake of argument, that the ingredients of Sanatogen are in chemical combination, the compound cannot have any effect on the organism different from that of the uncombined casein and glycerophosphate, for the union must be of the loosest kind and must be broken up as soon as the preparation enters the digestive tract.
Testimonials are published in the Sanatogen “literature” which show results in a variety of conditions; cerebral concussion, alcoholic gastritis, anemia, etc. The patient is given a chance to recover with rest, proper diet—and Sanatogen. And the recovery which ensues is attributed to Sanatogen!
Not all of these testimonials are as naive as that of the Right Reverend the Bishop of Bath and Wells, who contributes the following bit of second-hand testimony:
“You may like to hear that I am informed by my private secretary that a member of his family has derived very remarkable benefit from using Sanatogen.”
Above is a photographic reproduction of one of the exhibits made at Atlantic City at the last annual meeting of the American Medical Association.
Jar 1 contains 31⁄3 ounces of the casein-glycerophosphate combination made abroad and sold under the name “Sanatogen;” it costs One Dollar.